Parrot Perfectly (And Bizarrely) Mimics The Cries Of An Infant Child

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Parrot mimicry is hilarious, and the bird in the video below is no exception (though living with it might be a bit of a nightmare).

Take, for example, a video we posted of a parrot doing a Riverdance (or if you’re more for pragmatism, he could also be asserting dominance — use your imagination as you see best fit). Or, alternatively, aparrot who’s in cahoots with his dog friend that he feeds spaghetti. Heck, we’ve even seen a parrot pull a toothbefore.

And their ability to mimic seemingly arbitrary sounds, if nothing else, makes for great entertainment. “Parrots are not equally vocal, and many species likely imitate for different reasons. For example, African grey parrots in the wild are known to imitate other species of birds,” writes Michael Schindlinger over at the Scientific American. “My own observations of Amazon parrots from Mexico to Guyana to Peru revealed only imitations of each parrot’s own species (and their own local dialects). When parrots are kept as pets, they learn their calls from their adoptive human social partners.”

For the following parrot, one family is probably acutely aware now that they have little control over specifically which sounds their bird picks up. This particular parrot decided it best liked the wailing screams of the household’s newborn — which are, honestly, indiscernible from the real thing if you weren’t witnessing them coming from the mouth of a small feathered animal.